Afghan women say they were locked in the basement of a bank to prevent them from taking part in protests in Kabul yesterday.
Furious protesters took to the streets of the capital on Tuesday after the leader of the anti-Taliban resistance called for a 'national uprising' against the militant group a day earlier. However,Taliban categorically denied these news describing them baseless, fabricated, unjust and bundle of lies
Pictures showed female demonstrators arguing with Taliban fighters as one woman stared down an M-16 rifle pointed at her face.
Footage taken on a mobile phone shows a woman in an underground car park, panning around to reveal a crowd of women and some children gathered in the same space.
The video is hastily cut short after a man's voice is heard shouting.
Miraqa Popal, the head of news at Afghanistan's Tolo News outlet, shared the clip on Twitter, writing that some eyewitnesses said the women were held in Kabul's Azizi Bank 'to prevent them from joining protesters'.
Tuesday saw scores of anti-Taliban protesters in Kabul demanding rights for women, work, and freedom of movement.
Demonstrators also chanted anti-Pakistan slogans, denouncing the 'intrusion' of the country into Afghan domestic affairs. Pakistan has been accused of providing air support to the Taliban.
Taliban fighters fired gunshots into the air to disperse protesters and reportedly made several arrests. The rallies came as the Taliban announced a caretaker government, awarding top posts to veteran jihadists as it seeks to bring stability to Afghanistan more than three weeks after seizing power.
On Monday, the Taliban claimed victory over Panjshir - the only one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces not to have fallen to the group.
National Resistance Front (NRF) leader Ahmad Massoud appeared to admit defeat in an audio message sent to the media in which he called on Afghans to launch 'a national uprising for the dignity, freedom and prosperity of our country.'
Protesters chanted Massoud's name, and many attending were women - an almost inconceivable sight during the Taliban's brutal 1998-2001 rule when women and girls were barred from work and education, forced to wear burqas and effectively consigned to their homes.
In the intervening years, Afghan women have been granted greater freedoms which they fear will be curtailed under the Taliban.
Videos and photographs showed female protesters in Kabul arguing with armed Taliban fighters.
There were reports of fighters hitting people, including women, with the butts of their rifles. The Tolo cameraman sent to film the protest was detained but has since been released, according to Popal. The BBC was also prevented from filming the protests.
Basic services have collapsed since the Taliban took power, people cannot withdraw money from banks and Western aid has been cut off.
The UN has warned that food stocks could run low by the end of the month as the country braces for an economic meltdown.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN's deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said that a third of the population was already going hungry.
'More than half of Afghan children do not know whether they'll have a meal tonight or not,' Alakbarov said at a news briefing last Wednesday. 'That's the reality of the situation we're facing on the ground.'
The Taliban's chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid held a press conference on Tuesday evening to announce UN-sanctioned Mohammad Hassan Akhund as their new leader.
Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar will serve as his deputy; Mullah Yaqub, son of the one-eyed late supreme leader Mullah Omar, was named defence minister; and Sirajuddin Haqqani, wanted by the FBI and the leader of the feared Haqqani network, was named interior minister.
Mujahid said that the cabinet was not complete 'it is just acting' and that they aimed 'to take people from other parts of the country.
'The cabinet is not complete, it is just acting,' Mujahid said. 'We will try to take people from other parts of the country.'
The hardline Islamists have been expected to announce a government since the US-led evacuation was completed at the end of August.
They have promised an 'inclusive' government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup - though women are unlikely to be included at the top levels.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, a Taliban negotiator in Doha and member of the first regime's cabinet, was named foreign minister.
As they transition from insurgent group to governing power, the Taliban have a series of major issues to address, including looming financial and humanitarian crises.
Afghanistan's economy is in tatters after the West withdrew funding following the fall of the government last month.
Washington and international institutions such as the World Bank cut off aid, and the Taliban has been unable to access around $9 billion in treasury reserves held in foreign currency overseas.
Prices for essentials such as milk and flour have skyrocketed, sparking fears of runaway inflation.
And then there's the issue of obtaining money in the first place, with most Afghans unable to withdraw cash because banks have been closed and ATMs emptied since the Taliban victory.
The Taliban have repeatedly sought to reassure Afghans and foreign countries that they will not reimpose the brutal rule of their last period in power, when they carried out violent public punishments and barred women and girls from public life.
But details are still vague on how the newly-announced government will run the country.
Asked whether the United States would recognise the Taliban, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House late Monday: 'That's a long way off.'
